1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to processing financial documents. More particularly, but not by way of limitation, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for monitoring deposits and/or withdrawals as they are made, archiving information derived from the deposit and withdrawal transactions, and retrieving and using the archived information for various automated operations.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is well known that information obtained from various financial documents, including currency bills, as they enter and leave a financial institution, may be useful in various automated operations within the institution, if that information may be retrieved. For example, the laws of various countries require banks and other financial institutions to report to the governments of such countries any cash deposits in excess of a prescribed value, e.g., in excess of $10,000 in the U.S. Those laws typically specify the type of information to be included in such reports, such as identification of the account to which the deposit was made, the amount of the deposit, the location of the facility where the deposit was made, and other useful information.
Based upon the foregoing there is a great need to have a system that is capable of monitoring all deposits made at a financial institution and automatically generating the required report whenever the total value of a cash deposit exceeds the threshold value prescribed by the laws of the country in which that facility is located.